ALBANY -- Saturday might be National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, but 63 percent of New York counties have five or fewer permanent drug disposal boxes -- and five counties don’t have any at all.
An audit Friday by the state Comptroller’s Office of the state's drug management and disposal program found it largely does a good job, but is lagging in providing enough drop-off spots for residents to discard prescription drugs in some parts of New York.
Several areas of the state are lacking adequate drop off sites to safely dispose of unused prescriptions, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.
“The state has taken significant steps to develop a much-needed drug disposal program,” he said in a statement.
“Consumers may be discouraged from properly disposing of their unused prescription drugs due to inconveniences. I commend DEC for their work, but our audit shows more could be done to measure public awareness and improve the effectiveness of the program.”
Saturday is the 15th time New York has taken part in a National Prescription Drug Take Back Day over the last eight years.
In 2016, over 86,000 pounds of drugs were collected at events across the state, the audit said.
New York has at least 346 permanent drop-off collection boxes where unused prescription drugs can be properly and safely disposed of, the audit said.
The drop-off sites are usually located at pharmacies, police stations and town halls, but in some areas there are only a few, if any, of these boxes in place, DiNapoli's review found.
Drop-off boxes allow people to get rid of unused prescriptions without the risk of them being used or abused by someone for whom they were not prescribed.
It also is a more environmentally safe option for disposal rather than flushing or throwing away drugs that can interfere with drinking water or cause other environmental issues.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation runs the program.
According to the audit, 40 of the 62 New York counties have five or fewer permanent drug disposal boxes.
That includes zero boxes in Chemung and Wayne counties, and just one box in Schuyler County, two in Genesee and three in Broome counties.
Other counties around the state had higher numbers of drug disposal boxes, including eight boxes in Dutchess County; nine in Tompkins; 18 in Monroe; 20 in Ulster and 25 in Westchester.
According to the audit, though, some of the areas with higher numbers of boxes still may not have a sufficient number of boxes for the population of the areas.
According to the DEC, the boxes cost $1,250 each, including delivery.
The DEC’s webpage was found to have listed 279 locations where there were collections boxes in the state. Upon investigation the comptroller’s office, though, it identified 346 sites.
Having an accurate searchable site for where to find collection boxes will help more people to be able to use them, the audit recommended.
In a response attached to the audit, the DEC defended the program and said it continues to look to ways to improve it.
"DEC has done a remarkable amount of work protecting the environment from improper drug disposal," it said.
"DEC maintains a webpage that contains drop-box locations and updates that site when we obtain new information."
To find drop-off locations, visit: http://www.dec.ny.gov/gmk/index.html?url=http://www.dec.ny.gov/maps/gmnysmeddropbox.kmz
